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Baby Boom Migration and
Its Impact on Rural America—Members of the baby boom cohort, now 45-63 years old, are approaching a period in their lives when moves to rural and small-town destinations increase. An analysis of age-specific, net migration during the 1990s reveals extensive shifts in migration patterns as Americans move through different life-cycle stages. Assuming similar age patterns of migration, this report identifies the types of nonmetropolitan counties that are likely to experience the greatest surge in baby boom migration during 2000-20 and projects the likely impact on the size and distribution of retirement-age populations in destination counties. The analysis finds a significant increase in the propensity to migrate to nonmetro counties as people reach their fifties and sixties and projects a shift in migration among boomers toward more isolated settings, especially those with high natural and urban amenities and lower housing costs. If baby boomers follow past migration patterns, the nonmetro population age 55-75 will increase by 30 percent between now and 2020.
Health Status and Health
Care Access of Farm and Rural Populations—Rural
residents have higher rates of age-adjusted mortality,
disability, and chronic disease than their urban counterparts,
though mortality and disability rates vary more by region
than by metro status. Contributing negatively to the health
status of rural residents are their lower socioeconomic
status, higher incidence of both smoking and obesity,
and lower levels of physical activity. Contributing negatively
to the health status of farmers are the high risks from
workplace hazards, which also affect other members of
farm families who live on the premises and often share
in the work; contributing positively are farmers’
higher socioeconomic status, lower incidence of smoking,
and more active lifestyle. Both farm and rural populations
experience lower access to health care along the dimensions
of affordability, proximity, and quality, compared with
their nonfarm and urban counterparts.
Natural Amenities Drive
Rural Population Change—This report develops
an index of natural amenities, based on climate, topography,
and presence of bodies of water, and ties that index to
changes in nonmetro population over the past 25 years.
Understanding
Rural Population Loss—One in four rural counties
lost population between 1990 and 2000. Declining farm
employment is often cited as the reason. But recent ERS
research suggests that the drawback for such counties
is less their agriculture than their remoteness and thin
settlement, coupled with their lack of natural amenities.
Natural amenities, such as varied topography, lakes and
ocean shore lines, sunny winters, and temperate summers,
are a magnet for population and tourism.
Racial/Ethnic Minorities
in Rural Areas: Progress and Stagnation, 1980-90—Examines
rural Black, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian and
Pacific Islander populations and their economic well-being
in the 1980s. Results show minimal progress of minorities
as measured by changes in occupation, income, and poverty
rates. However, the type and speed of progress was quite
different among minority groups and between men and women
of the same minority group.
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